It’s Badge415’s First Anniversary

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Badge415

Where has the year gone? This week marks Badge415’s first anniversary.

It was August 8, 2014 when I published “The Badge” as the first blog post. Since then there have been 105 other blog posts. It’s hard to believe there have been that many.

I can’t claim credit for the blog and Facebook page though. That credit goes to an old high school friend (@sheanaochoa on Twitter and Sheana Ochoa on Facebook). A little over a year ago, I asked her for advice about getting a book published. It was a phone call that changed everything.

The first question she asked was, “What is your writer’s platform?”

“My what?”

I had no idea what she was talking about. It was like she was speaking a different language to me.

“You need a blog,” she said.

Sheana told me to start writing a blog and people would follow me. I couldn’t imagine writing a blog. That was something other people did. Who want would read my stuff?

That phone call left me with more questions than answers. Part of me didn’t want to write a blog. I couldn’t imagine putting myself out there for all to see. That was as crazy as trying to teach a high school French class. Since I don’t speak French, that would be pretty crazy.

For the next two weeks, I did a ton of research and learned a lot about blogs and writer’s platforms. It was amazing how much information was out there.

Two weeks later, the day came when it was time to launch the blog and the Facebook page. There was a lot of apprehension on my part. The biggest worry was, “What are my friends going to think?”

When it was time, I hit the “publish” button and there was no turning back. The first blog post was out there for all to see, to criticize and to talk about. I wondered if anyone was going to read it. I wondered if anyone was going to care. And finally, I wondered if it was worth it.

A funny thing happened. People started following the blog. Within the second week there were over 500 Facebook likes thanks to the FB page 911- Injured in the line of duty . It was amazing and shocking at the same time.

Since then, I’ve received a lot of positive feedback about the blog. Some of the best feedback has come from fellow officers and non-sworn employees at work.

The subject of the blog comes up all the time on calls. People sometimes ask if the particular call we’re on will make the blog. Others say they’re waiting for the next blog post to come out. Sometimes cops will say they have a blog story for me from something that happened to them. That type of feedback tells me I’m doing something right and I appreciate it.

One of the best comments I got was in the locker room at the end of shift about a month ago. One of the officers said, “My mom loves reading your blog.” That made my day.

Since that first post, the Facebook page has grown to over 1,300 likes and the new Twitter page, @Badge415 has almost 800 followers. The website Behind the Badge OC has also featured some of my blog stories.

Badge415 also won “Best Lifestyle Blog” by the Orange County Press Club for 2014.

And finally, one of the best compliments was from my kids, who like reading the blog also. What else can you ask for?

Thanks again to everyone who has followed the blog. Your support is appreciated.

Stay safe out there.

The girl with perfect glasses

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Badge415

A few weeks ago I was in a store with my daughter when she told me she wanted to buy clear glasses. I asked her why she wanted those. She said, “They’re cute.”

Well, they weren’t that cute for $12. As we walked to the car, I told her those glasses reminded me of a story from work. After I got done telling them the story, both of my kids shook their heads in amazement.

One night it was raining when I was dispatched to a hit and run collision in which the victim was chasing the suspect. The victim didn’t know where she was at and we couldn’t find her.

The call then got really confusing when someone else called 911 related to the collision. Dispatch got a call from some guy who said he was a passenger from the suspect vehicle, but he was now a passenger in the victim vehicle. He didn’t know where he was either.

Confused?

The call was so confusing I finally told dispatch I was going to park at Target and the victim could find me since we couldn’t locate her. A few minutes later she showed up alone. A carload of her friends also showed up because she called them.

The victim told me she was rear ended by a car that took off. She chased after the car until it drove into a cul-de-sac. Once in the cul-de-sac, the car stopped and a male passenger got out. The suspect vehicle then took off again, but left the male there.

The male ran up to her car and got into the passenger seat and told her to chase after the suspect, which she did.

At that point, there were two people in the victim vehicle calling 911.

During the chase they lost the suspect vehicle and the guy told her to stop. He got out of the car and took off too. Of course, she had no idea where she left him because she was lost herself. We never found that guy. It was probably better that way. If he needed the cops he would’ve called back.

While I was talking with her, I noticed that the lenses on her glasses were really clear. My lenses were spotted from working in the rain that night, but her lenses were in perfect condition. They were almost too perfect.

“Do you have lenses in your glasses?” I asked.

“No,” she said it with a straight face.

After an awkward silence I asked, “Why would you wear glasses with no lenses?”

“I have a fat face. They make me look thinner.”

I actually busted up laughing in front of her. I couldn’t help it. This was just a weird call. You can’t make this stuff up.

You can sleep in my car tonight

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Badge415

The other night we responded to a traffic collision call in which a man was threatening another man with a knife.

When I got there, I saw two cars in a Jack in the Box parking lot. One car had a bent right front wheel. The other car had minor damage to the front bumper. Both were parked in their own spaces.

One of the cars was stuffed full of items that would make a hoarder jealous. Then there was this suitcase, along with other miscellaneous things all over the place in the parking lot. There was basically crap everywhere. It was a like transient yard sale.

I pulled one of the guys aside and asked him what happened. The driver, who we’ll call Frank, said he and the other vehicle had crashed in the parking lot. After the collision, they moved their cars because they were blocking the driveway.

Frank then said, “We already exchanged information.”

“Wait time did the crash happen?” I asked.

“About 9:30?”

“That was ninety minutes ago. What have you been doing this whole time?”

Frank pointed to the other car and driver as he said, “My car isn’t drivable and his is. He lives in his car, so we decided to switch cars so I could go to work tomorrow.”

“You were going to let the homeless guy move into your car and sleep in it tonight?” I asked.

“Yes. I have to go to work tomorrow.”

I took a closer look at Frank’s car and it was stuffed with the homeless guy’s belongings. The homeless guy literally moved out of one car and into another. Well, he was almost moved in. The suitcase was still in the parking lot.

Most people call their insurance companies after a collision. These guys were taking traffic accident negotiations to an entirely new level. I bet Geico would love to help them save 15% on their car insurance.

We then found out Frank had taken the homeless guy’s car on a test drive to see how it ran. To top it off,Frank even had a suspended license. The entire call was just bizarre.

In the end, the homeless guy moved out of Frank’s car and back into his vehicle again. He drove off to find another place to sleep for tonight. Frank got to make arrangements for transportation on his own. It was the shortest rental agreement ever.

Officers never found the knife Frank called 911 about. Kind of makes you think he made the whole thing up.

The entire story was crazy. Who agrees to swap cars with a complete stranger?

You never know what’s going to happen at work. And of course, you just can’t make this stuff up.

Do you still have passion for the job?

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Badge415

I saw a Tweet today that I wanted to share. It was from an officer with less than a year on the job.

“In terms of how addicting it is, no drug has anything on police work. Once you get in it, you’re hooked.”

Those two sentences said a lot about what it’s like to be young and new on the job. A lot of us can remember saying something similar to that when we started this roller coaster career called police work.

When I first started back in the mid-nineties, I would’ve done this job for free. I couldn’t wait to get back to work from my days off. It might sound funny to some, but unless you’ve done the job in the city I work at, it’s hard to describe to a non-officer.

Back then each new shift was an adventure. Going to work was like stepping through a magic door into a distant world that was like a crazy circus with a cast of characters that was equal to none.

Simply put. It was the greatest show on earth.

Every day was different and brought a new thrill. Each new day was a learning experience as I tried to figure out how to be a cop.

Early on I knew there was no way I could ever work in an office and sit behind a computer. Driving around in a black and white was where it was at for me.

As an older officer with time on, I like seeing new cops who want to save the world and arrest bad guys. They want to do well and make a difference. I can fondly look back at those days and chuckle at myself because I see a little of myself in some of them.

Despite all the problems in police work, this still is the best job in the world. I’m still amazed they pay me to do this. Each day is still an adventure with crazy things happening to keep it interesting. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, something else happens to prove me wrong.

Twenty years later, I’m happy to say the enthusiasm and passion is still there. I love my job, but I wouldn’t do it for free though. I’m older and wiser now. Let’s not get crazy.

To all the new cops out there. Have fun. The job is what you make of it.

Be safe.

There’s still good in people

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Badge415

What do you see when you turn on the TV? You see conflict, chaos and people who just can’t get along. You see people who would cross a busy street just to kick a person while they’re down and then celebrate about it.

We, as officers, see firsthand what mean, crazy and violent things people do to each other.

Today I witnessed something rare. I actually saw the opposite of all the craziness and nonsense in the world.

I responded to a “person down” call at one of our parks. The call said a male was inside a woman’s bathroom and not breathing. When I arrived, the paramedics were already there and treating a male, who overdosed on heroin.

A homeless woman told us she was in the bathroom at time taking a “birdbath” as she tried to wash herself. While she was in the restroom she could hear a man and woman cutting an aluminum can open to make a “cooker” so they could inject heroin.

She knew what this sounded like because she was also a heroin user.

At one point the man went down and stopped breathing. The woman who was with him, took off and left the male on the floor in the bathroom.

The homeless woman saw this and knew he wasn’t breathing. She took action and started doing CPR on him, even though he was a complete stranger to her.

She said, “I just couldn’t leave him there.”

“Did you give him mouth to mouth?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’ve done CPR before.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes. To my mom. I was 12 years old at the time.” She made it sound like her mom passed away that day so I didn’t ask her any more questions.

The paramedics were able to revive the male and transported him to the hospital. We told the woman it looked like she had saved his life and told her she did a good job.

When we were done, she walked off into the park holding a bag with all of her belongings. She went back into her little world that most people will never be able to understand.

This is because the world has forgotten her and most people wouldn’t give her the time of day because of the way she looks.

Despite this, she saw that a complete stranger needed help and she jumped in with both feet and did what she could for him.

I’m not saying it’s safe to give a heroin addict mouth to mouth, but we can all learn a little something from the spirit of this woman, who helped another human being who was in need.

The spirit she displayed wasn’t much different from cops and firefighters, who are out there every day doing things for people they don’t know. They also don’t ask for anything in return.

Just something to think about.

But it’s not my fault

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Badge415

There’s a something funny that happens when a person finds out they’re at fault when they rear end another car. You would think it was pretty obvious who was at fault in that situation, but sometimes there’s drama when they ask.

The rear end collision is one of the most common I go. You would think this particular type of collision would be the easiest to avoid since the car was right in front of the other driver. There’s no surprises here. The car was either moving, slowing down or stopped.

After the collision the driver will sometimes ask if they’re at fault for rear ending the car. I actually think it’s funny when they ask that. That’s like a baseball player dropping an easy fly ball and asking if it was his fault.

They other night I went to a rear end collision where the driver was shocked when she found out she was at fault for crashing into the vehicle in front of her. She was going 40 miles per hour while following a vehicle less than a car length behind when the car stopped in front of her.

Of course, she didn’t have time to stop and crashed into the car. One person went to the hospital and one of the cars had to be towed. She then wanted to debate and argue with me when she asked if she was at fault.

There’s something that happens to people who can’t believe they’re at fault when they rear end a car. I call this the “I can’t believe I’m at fault” reaction.

First there’s the look of disbelief. Their eyes get wide, the jaw clinches, the head goes back and the upper body makes an involuntary jerk to the rear. They then shake their head side to side like it’s going to go away.

This particular reaction comes in different levels of disbelief, which makes it funnier at times. The reaction can be very slight to down right drama.

Once the reaction has been displayed I try and explain to the driver that they have to drive at a speed and distance that is safe for the conditions.

Whenever the person hears that they come back with, “But I was.” They say this without realizing that they just crashed into the back of a car that was stopped in front of them.

If they had been driving at a speed and distance that was safe for the conditions I would still be sitting in Starbucks rather than standing in the street with them.

Never mind that there’s an ambulance and a fire truck taking the victim away, who was just violently assaulted from behind by a 3,000lbs object on four wheels.

The process of explaining this can be painful at times, because the driver is in defensive mode. At that point they just want to debate.

There finally comes a point where nothing I say is good enough. That’s when I bring out this one simple sentence that works every time. It’s the “I should’ve had a V8” moment for the driver who is arguing with me.

I say, “You just can’t around hitting cars.”

Once the person hears that they stop arguing. Sometimes they display the “I can’t believe I’m at fault” reaction again. That means I get to see their body involuntarily jerk backwards again, along with the jaw clenching and shake of the head. This time the eyes don’t get wide. They instead squint like the villain from a Disney movie.

Too bad I can’t say what I really want to…….. ” You just can’t go around hitting shit.”

When your street race doesn’t go as planned

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Badge415

Sometimes I’ll be on a call and another officer will ask me if the story is going to make the blog. It’s funny to me because I’m usually thinking the same thing.

The other night I was on a stop and I said to myself, “This has blog written all over it.” I was even tempted to tell the driver he was going to make the blog because of his stupidity. I also wanted to tell him he was one of the reasons why I have new stories every night.

Let me back up so I can explain how I met Mr. Speed Racer with no brain.

I was stopped at a red light thinking about all the reports I had to write because of the collision epidemic that my city sometimes suffers from. That’s when I heard the sound of skidding tires and an engine revving. A few seconds later I saw a car approaching from the opposite direction, which was clearly the winner of a race. The loser was in the next lane bringing up the rear.

I made a turn and waited for Mr. Speed Racer to go by me. Even though I was busy, Mr. Speed Racer needed some attention because of his lack of decision making skills.

I stopped him and asked, “Why do you think I stopped you?”

“You think I was racing,” replied Mr. Speed Racer.

“What would make you think that?”

He went on to tell me the other driver challenged him so that was why he was racing. He also told me he had been cited for racing a few years ago and the ticket cost him $800. I asked him why in the world he would race again if it cost him that much. Mr. Speed Racer told me it was because the other driver challenged him.

It was clear to me that this 24 year old didn’t see the big picture in life. It made me wonder how I could provide world class customer service to this individual so he would see the error of his ways.

I went back to my car and did a records check on his name. I was surprised my computer didn’t freeze up and crash from all of the times he had been stopped and had his car impounded. I was also surprised to find out he had been stopped by our department at least ten times.

I did some research on his stops and I saw my name attached to one of them from May of 2007. It turned out I stopped him and impounded his car for driving while unlicensed eight years ago. What are the odds of that?

I went back up the Mr. Speed Racer and asked him how many times his car had been impounded. He said, “A lot.”

“I impounded your car too.”

He looked at me and said, “You did?”

After I was done with the stop, I knew Mr. Speed Racer was going to be immortalized in a Badge415 blog story. He’s a perfect example of people who make poor decisions and wonder why the police are talking to them.

I’m pretty sure Mr. Speed Racer will lose his license again after my stop. And I’m really sure he’ll get his car impounded again too.

Who knows, maybe I’ll be the one who stops him again and we’ll have Mr. Speed Racer 2.0 blog story. I’m confident he’ll never learn his lesson until he hurts himself or someone else.

Until then, be on the lookout for Mr. Speed Racer and other people like him. Unfortunately they don’t care and never learn their lesson.

Protest away, but you never know when you’re going to need a cop

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Badge415

By now most people have heard about the Subway employee and her comments about the two police officers who were killed while on duty in Mississippi.

I was disgusted by this, but not surprised that someone would say something like that. It’s just the way it is in the world we live in.

Her comments were not just about two murdered police officers. They were about all of us and what she thinks of law enforcement in general. That’s fine. She can believe whatever she wants, but who is she going to call when she needs help? Who is she going to call if she’s ever raped? Who is she going to call if one of her children ever got hit by a car?

She’s going to call a police officer.

Three years ago our city experienced civil unrest after a couple of officer involved shootings. There was one particular neighborhood that was a boiling point and officers had to stand by while the district attorney investigators conducted their investigation. The crowd become more violent and additional officers had to be called. This all occurred before I started my shift.

Eventually more officers were needed at the scene and I was sent. When I arrived, I stood in a line alongside other officers while the crowd was acting crazy. I stood there disgusted with the way some of these people were acting.

There was one particular woman who decided I was going to be her civil unrest project. She was upset about something, but I had no idea because I wasn’t even at work when the mess started.

She stood there and yelled at me. She spit on the ground toward my direction. She went on and on as I seemed to be the only one who drew her rage.

I stood there while she raged her personal little war against me, but her protest, anger and free speech fell on deaf ears because I had no idea what she was saying. All I could think of was, “Whatever lady.”

I never forgot what that woman looked like because we spent so much quality time together. I even saw her complaining on the news about the police that night.

Fast forward six months and guess who I got to meet again? You got it. My long lost Spanish speaking spitting protester. She called the police because she needed help. How ironic is that?

What a small world. I was the follow up officer and stood by while he handled the call. I listened as a translator told us why the woman needed the police. Of course, it was for something trivial, but that didn’t stop her from calling 911 when she needed a cop.

I put on a professional face and just stood there. There was nothing for me to say. Her protest that day was more about being mad at the uniform than me. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get to have an opinion about her. Let’s just say, “#@##$!,” might be close to what I wanted to say.

I wondered if she recognized me. She gave me a few looks like she did, but it didn’t matter. I just wanted to get done with the call so I could move on to the next one. When it was time to leave, I silently walked and bit my tongue.

In the end I have a message for people who want to protest.

Protest all you want. On my days off I have better things to do with my time than stand on the sidewalk yelling at people I don’t know. If that’s what you want to do knock yourself out. It’s America.

Just remember this. Who are you going to call the next time you need help? Not the Ghostbusters. You’re going to call a police officer. You have no choice so let’s work together. It’s easier that way.

Thank you to the officers in Baltimore

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Badge415

I sat in front of my TV and watched the Baltimore riots and felt pissed. I felt anger for what they were doing and I felt sorry for the cops standing in the skirmish line.

How can anyone set fires like that and think it’s OK? How can someone go into the street and destroy property like that? How can someone cut a fire hose or throw rocks at a fire truck?

As the rioters threw rocks and bottles it reminded me of a scene from the Middle East in the 1980s.

But it wasn’t the Middle East. It was about 40 miles from the White House in the United States of America. That’s not supposed to happen here.

As I watched, I also felt anger for what the cops were going through. I watched them in the skirmish line with their helmets, shields and batons and I sympathized with them. That easily could’ve been me and my friends working the line.

They didn’t ask to be there. They didn’t have anything to do with what the protest was about. They were just stuck there doing a job that anyone of us could’ve been stuck doing.

I watched as rocks and other objects were thrown at them and I was pissed. I was even more pissed when a guy walked up to the skirmish line with a trash can that was on fire and threw it at them.

It made me more frustrated to watch as the skirmish line stood there and didn’t advance to take the rock throwers into custody.

From the news reports, it appeared the officers had their hands tied behind their backs by the higher ups. Shame on the command staff for letting that happen.

Tonight was my first day back to work since my days off. Thankfully everything was normal in my city. Citizens waved and said hi. People said thank you when I was finished with my calls. One guy on a bicycle even told me he was sorry I had to come out after he was hit by a car. That was far different from what was going on 3,000 miles away.

Tonight’s shift made me feel grateful for where I worked. It also made me think of the men and women in Baltimore that weren’t so lucky the last few nights. My helmet was in the truck of my patrol car while other cops had all of their gear on in a hostile environment.

The last few night most people watched TV and only saw officers in helmets. I bet most never thought of the face, behind the plastic shield.

Under each helmet was a person. A real human being with feelings and emotions. They were husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters who just happened to be cops.

Try to imagine what it was like to be in their shoes during the last few days. Hopefully you can sympathize with what they went through. It’s not an easy job, but someone has to do it.

Thank you to all the officers in Baltimore.

A lot of us prayed for you while you were working in hell. Stay safe out there and keep those shields up.

Body Worn Camera

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Badge415

Say Cheese

This weekend was the first time I ever used my Taser body worn camera (BWC). It was an easy transition from the Puma audio recorder we were issued a few years ago. Like anything new, you just have to get used to turning it on and off.

I don’t see the BWC as a bad thing. It’s a good thing that was needed in today’s volatile climate. If the BWC shows a suspect is guilty and keeps me out of court then it’s a good thing. If a person lies about something and the camera was running, then it did its job.

Is the BWC the end all when it comes to investigations?

The BWC shows a lot, but it can’t replace the good old human eye, head and neck. The head can turn to look. The BWC can’t. Its field of view is dependent on where the officer wears it.

As an officer, you’re trained to keep you gun side back. That means standing at an angle to a suspect with the gun away. Since my BWC is on my belt that means its field of view might be turned slightly away from the suspect.

I bring that up because a non-law enforcement person might wonder why the video didn’t show everything they expected to see. There’s just no perfect place to wear it.

When I entered the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy in 1994 I never imagined wearing a camera while working. It wasn’t something you thought about. As the years went by, new technology changed how we did things. Equipment got faster, smaller and smarter.

The BWC age is upon us, so you might as well embrace it because it’s not going away. If you don’t have a BWC yet, you will soon.

There’s an interesting feature about the camera when the power switch is on. It’s always recording the last 30 seconds with no audio. When you activate the camera to the record mode the audio then starts. The BWC retains the last 30 seconds of video prior to the record button being activated.

So, this brings me to an interesting thing about the BWC. I’m not worried the BWC is going to show me doing something wrong.

The main thing you have to worry about with the BWC is to make sure the power is off when you go to the rest room….

I didn’t think about it until the first time nature called and I had this new piece of technology attached to the front of my belt.

Let me say that again. “Attached to the front of my belt.”

It’s just a little something the newbies to the world of law enforcement cameras should think about. It brings new meaning to being caught with your pants down….

The age of the body worn camera is upon us. Say Cheese.